


A Gentle Someone

by jenish (phizzle)



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M, community:snail_mail_porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-06-05
Updated: 2005-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-07 21:00:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phizzle/pseuds/jenish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Some bits of dialogue taken from the episode "Raised By Another", written by Lynne E. Litt.</p>
    </blockquote>





	A Gentle Someone

**Author's Note:**

> Some bits of dialogue taken from the episode "Raised By Another", written by Lynne E. Litt.

Charlie's shoes skidded a little where the sand had shaken loose on top, steadying himself with hands splayed. He looked back at the wreckage, the piece of metal that had landed inches from him – well, okay, maybe a yard – still with small flames licking its edges. He had a vague notion he'd seen a kid somewhere, and hoped the fires would go out soon.

_It's gone._ Yeah. Gone. The front of the plane, ripped out in midair, taking the stash he'd been about to sacrifice and replacing it with a big sucking hole where the rest of the plane used to be. _After this? Never gonna fly again._

_Unless the tour kicks off, in which case, screw you Liam and what's a little turbulence between rockers?_ He almost laughed out loud, but he stopped short of quite feeling like it.

A guy passed, large bloke, Charlie noticed almost idly, leading a … very pregnant woman. They drew level with him, and he smiled, got two awkward ones in return. The woman stumbled on the loose sand, and Charlie's arm reflexively shot out to catch her. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks." Accent. Australian? Probably. She leaned against him. The guy flicked Charlie a look _Thanks, man_, and Charlie nodded _S'okay_ back.

"Uh, are you sure you're alright? Will you be okay if I leave you with this guy, I wanna go … see if Jack needs some help."

"Yeah, I'm good." She smiled, and the guy shook Charlie's hand.

"I'm Hurley. Nice to meet you. See ya!" Charlie blinked as Hurley turned and left, with surprising speed. Either that, or Charlie was just moving slower than normal. Perhaps a bit of both.

Charlie put his arm around the girl, steering her to a clear patch of sand to sit on. "You thought what to call the baby yet?" he asked.

"Not yet." She slipped again, the sand suddenly loose and covering a place where the packed sand _should_ have been, but wasn't. Charlie held her up as she righted herself.

"Alright?" She nodded. "I don't know about you, but I could do with a sit-down." Charlie sat on the sand, angled up towards her, and she sat next to him. It didn't seem strange when she leaned against him, when he put his arm back around her, when she sighed. Charlie felt like holding onto something solid.

"Thanks." Her voice was a little muffled against his shirt.

"No problem. What's your name?"

"Claire. What's yours?" _Kinda strange. I can hear his heart beating, but I don't know his name._

"Charlie." _Now I do._

"Did you have any friends on the plane, Charlie? Any family or anything?"

Charlie was silent for a second. "No. Just me."

"Me neither. Well, I've got –" she circled one palm on her belly "- but no one … else." She sighed. "My mother didn't even know I was going to LA."

Charlie said nothing. He just pulled her a tiny bit closer.

"Did yours?"

"Yeah. My brother, he was in Sydney. Is. Is in Sydney."

"Oh." She let it drop. Listened to his heart beating for a while. "Are you alright, Charlie?"

"Well, apart from having just been in a plane crash and having my hand bloodied to fuck –" he held out his fingers to show her the pieces of tape "- I'm fine and dandy. How about you?"

She didn't say anything for almost a minute. He wondered if she was really not okay and thought about calling out to find someone. "I'm alright," she said at last. It wasn't the most convincing argument he had ever heard. But really, it wasn't any of his business. She curled inward a little, tucking her legs under her, and looped her arms around his waist. He smiled. It was nice, to slow down like his brain kept wanting him to. Maybe he had a concussion. Maybe he was just adjusting to the ground again, after hours in the air, maybe … well, whatever it was, he was perfectly happy to stop for a while in the company of a pretty, sweet young thing who wanted to cling a little. That was absolutely fine by Charlie.

~*~

Claire huddled the blanket around her shoulders, teeth struggling to chatter, tightly closed as she kept her mouth. "You okay there?" she stammered out, eyes on Charlie, who was shaking worse than her.

"Yeah." Charlie's nod was more a direction for the shivers to take than a gesture, but the wind was howling and there was precious little shelter. She moved closer, offering the rest of her blanket to him. He wrapped it gratefully around his body, shifting so their sides pressed up and warmed each other a little. Without thinking about it, his arms were wrapped around her again. "You?"

"I'll be fine once this rain lets up. And the wind, christ, it's freezing." Her arms were instinctively around her belly, protective. "And when the rescue comes."

"Yeah." Charlie's voice had a way of going, when she mentioned the rescue. Almost a little harder. "It'll be here, soon. Soon."

"I know. I think I'll do cartwheels to meet it." She leaned against him, then jerked a little. "He kicked again! Here." She grabbed his hand, laying it against the bump under her jumper, and he pressed his palm down until his face broke into a grin. "Did you feel that?"

"Yeah, I felt it." He stopped shaking, and the rainfall on the leaves above them abruptly halted, as if it had been waiting for the baby's sign of life. Charlie smiled at her. The wind died down, and her ears rang for ten minutes before settling back to normal.

~*~

"Aren't you glad I brought you that peanut butter?" Charlie grinned at her, turning back to watch the rainfall outside the cave.

"Pretend peanut butter, and yes, stop gloating." She grinned back at him, looking out as the water hit the pool, some raindrops so huge they bounced a foot above the surface. Her hand was on his back, and she didn't remember how it got there, but that didn't matter much at all. She moved her palm until it rested in the small of his back. He held back a small noise.

"Charlie…" she whispered, face turned to his neck. He twisted until his forehead rested on hers, their eyes closed. She sighed, and he took that as his cue. Pressed their noses together.

She kissed him when the rain stopped.

~*~

_Claire's hands feel like silk, never will know how she does this to me. My hands on her seem so rough in comparison, all the smoothness gone by the rocks and the foliage and how are hers so smooth? So soft, silk, feels so good against me. She gets my shirt off, faster than normal, and kisses the skin, and her lips feel like satin, always satin, and it's silk and satin and a five-star hotel, with Claire. And her tongue, that feels incredible, always has and ahhh, she uses it well._

_I move slowly, on top of her, and she hooks one leg over my hips, whispers my name just like that first time, and it never fails. Always gets me. My heart is racing now, as I sink inside her, and bury my nose in her neck and groan as she angles her hips up and her breath catches, hitches, and in her next exhalation she moans._

_Drives me wild. Makes me want to go so fast, tilt her hips further, but I make myself go slow. She likes it slow, and truth be told, so do I. I take my time, slide my hands underneath her, tilting gently so she almost doesn't notice it, and push in just right – there. Hit her just in that veryright place, and she's arching her neck and there it is, that moan, and I kiss her neck, one open-mouthed latch on, and she tilts her head. She likes that, too._

_Maybe I'll go a little faster this time. Maybe I won't, maybe I'll go a little slower. She never knows, and she likes it that way. I never know either, though I don't tell her that. Not yet._

_She's so perfect when she comes, when I stroke her belly, and lower, with my fingertips, go just that little bit faster and deeper, and she arches with her whole body, gasping out "Charlie" and gulping for air. I never last much longer when she does that. She looks into my eyes, doesn't let go for even a second, and I'm gone, tipping over the edge and muffling yelps into her shoulder._

_"Still gentle enough?" I ask, my heartbeat considering slowing down again, sweat evaporating. I hold her, shift position so we're both more comfortable, but I don't have to move from inside her just yet. She doesn't want me to._

_"Yes," she sighs, curling into my curve, and I kiss her temple. I can hear her heart. So I listen._

~*~

Charlie was woken by the sound of screaming. Bleary, he looked, saw that it was Claire stood in the middle of the camp, and tried to jump up. Sleep still had enough hold of his body that he couldn't quite manage it, but he shook that off, rushing to try and calm her down.

This was the second time she'd woken screaming. Someone had attacked her, under Charlie's fucking _nose_, and Jack thought it was just some delusion. Fuck that. Charlie wanted to find whoever was trying to hurt the baby, and then Charlie was going to do very, very unpleasant things to him.

_Nobody attacks my Claire and gets away with it._

~*~

"Where are you going?" Charlie battled briefly with a long frond of stiff grass that tried to grab his leg, hurrying to keep up with her step.

"Back to the beach." She ploughed on.

"What happened? Jack –"

"Jack tried to dope me. He thinks I'm making all this up, that none of it really happened."

"Right. So, to prove your sanity, you go tromping through the jungle. Alone. Well done." He refrained from patting her shoulder. That would be going too far.

She stopped. Looked him in the eye for the first time since he'd caught up with her. "I'm not crazy, Charlie."

"I know." His voice was quiet, and he reached out one hand to take hers. "I just don't want you being in danger. And the jungle, alone, isn't the safest place to be."

"It's not safe at the caves. It was at the beach. The jungle is between the caves and the beach. What was I supposed to do, fly?"

She barely heard the words, he had so little sound left in him. "You were supposed to take me with you. Trust me to protect you."

"Charlie, don't. Don't do this, okay? I can't. I can't, any of it." She moved her hand out of his grasp, and he clutched for it back.

"What?"

"I can't … I can't _do_ this, Charlie. This, us, this whatever we … this isn't my _life_. I am going to go to LA. My baby is going to have a wonderful, safe life and I … am going to go home." She deflated, turning away to walk on. "This isn't my life, Charlie. This can't, be anything. Go anywhere. It just can't."

Charlie swallowed. It seemed he couldn't speak at all, and when he tried, his throat hurt. His lips tried to form the start of "Wha" but she was gone.

He blinked. Cleared his vision again. Stared after her, wanted to follow, couldn't get his legs to work. Couldn't get his throat to work, either, that felt as if someone had been at it with an industrial sander.

He stared at the ground. He stared at the sky. He stared at the space in the air where she had been, almost expecting the words to be imprinted on the air and to start to make sense.

His knees gave way, and it was a good ten minutes before he heard a yell. And realised it was him.

Twenty minutes later, an answering yell sounded from almost out of earshot – and this time, it was her voice. Calling his name.

Charlie ran.

"Oh my god, Claire, are you alriiiight holy shit, the baby's coming, isn't it?" Charlie skidded to a halt in front of her. "Oh, bloody hell. What do I do? Are you alright? Are you okay? Squeeze my hand."

"_Charlie._ Shut up."

Charlie shut up. "Sorry. But. Baby."

Claire was propped against a tree, both arms cradling her bump, face screwed up. She looked at Charlie with all the venom a woman in labour can direct at the nearest thing with a penis. She felt the wild urge to scream _You did this_ and saw for a second the shape of Thomas in front of her. She wanted to kick it. "Yes, Charlie," she said, slowly, manically. "I am having the baby. Now."

"Er. How far apart are the contractions? We need to count them. One sugarplum fairy, two sugar-"

"_**Charlie**_."

"Shutting up."

"Get Jack."

"What? I'm not leaving you."

"Yes, you are. Get Jack."

"No, no, I can do this! I can deliver a baby! If I can kick drugs, I can deliver a baby."

Claire fixed him with her eyes. He was looking everywhere, vision searching for something with instructions, _Midwifery For Rock Stars up any of these trees?_, so it took a few seconds for the burning holes her glare was branding on his skin to find his attention.

"…Let me explain. I'm a drug addict. I mean, I _was_ a drug addict, I'm clean now!"

"And you didn't _tell me_?"

"Doesn't matter much now, does it? This being something you can't do, and all."

"Charlie."

"Getting Jack." He made to move, but she caught his arm.

"Charlie, I – look, I –"

"It's alright. I get it. You can't be here, it's not about me, it's about this not being where you're supposed to be, I know." He sighed. Looked down as he murmured, "S'okay."

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things. I didn't – I'm stuck here. And, so are you. And, I want to … Charlie, I want – I don't want it to be … over before it's even started. Or at all."

His eyes made slow progress over her neck, her face, to meet her own. "What?"

"Charlie, I like you. And I want us to be … I like what we had. Have. If, you still want me." She glanced down. "And I kind of come with a baby."

"I noticed." Charlie hesitated two inches from her. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure." She pressed her lips to his, once, quickly, and squeezed his hand gently. "Now get. Jack."

"Getting," he smiled, and crashed back through the undergrowth at a rate of knots. Well, maybe not knots, but he made enough noise for it to be.

Claire waited, wincing as another contraction took over.

~*~

Charlie's face split into a grin as the first wail was started up. He grabbed the towel Claire had handed him an hour ago, and carefully wrapped it around the baby. "It's a boy, Claire!"

She was exhausted. She looked older, and there were lines in places on her face he hadn't noticed were there before, but she looked at her baby, took him into her arms, and Charlie felt the urge to tiptoe away and leave them be in their own little bubble. Until she glanced up at him, and he realised that she had one hand curled on his arm. "I have a son. I have a _son_." Charlie put one arm around her, the other covering her own around the baby, and leaned his forehead against hers, their noses touching flush.

"He's beautiful," he murmured, and Claire tilted her face up to catch his bottom lip between hers for a moment.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I don't know why Jack didn't get here, but. You were great."

"Thanks. Never delivered a baby before. Told you I could do it."

When she felt strong enough to walk, she stood, keeping a firm hold of the baby. "Let's get back to the caves. I need some water. And the little man here needs to get set up in the world, don't you?" She jiggled the baby a little, and he blinked slowly up at her. "I'm going to keep you safe," she promised him, whispered into his hair as Charlie hauled her back onto his shoulder and put his arm around her back.

"You okay?" She nodded. "Right, let's go. I am going to give Jack hell about not showing up."

The movement didn't seem to upset the baby too much, though they walked as slowly as they could, Charlie's hand resting just so on her back, in case she needed him. He kept a better eye on the ground than she did, and neither of them were watching the path, so when –

"Ethan? Where's Jack? I told you to get him." Charlie paused. Something was … "Ethan?"

He glanced at Claire. She was looking at Ethan like she was terrified of him. Ethan, however, was staring at the baby in her arms. She pulled her arms closed around the bundle, huddling him to her chest.

They took a step back, together. Ethan took a step towards them.

"Charlie?" Claire twisted, handed him the baby, and he quickly took hold of him. "Take the baby. Take him." She looked him in the eye. "And run."

He swallowed, didn't stop to kiss her, much as he wanted to, and pelted off to the left.

Claire ran to the right.

Ethan paused.

~*~

_Got to keep moving, got to keep moving, wow it feels so weird to be without my baby, my god don't let him hurt my baby, let him come after me, let him kill me, anything, just don't hurt my baby, Charlie'll keep him safe, clearing, clearing, there's a clearing._ Claire flung one arm out to grab a tree trunk, halt her momentum a little, when she saw the two men in the clearing.

"Boone."

"Claire? What's –"

"He's after us. He was … I don't think he was behind me … my baby …"

Locke scanned his line of sight and listened. "Boone, take Claire back to the caves." Without another word, he slipped to the north side of the clearing and put his ear to a tree. Listened. Disappeared.

Claire looked at Boone. Boone looked at Claire. Boone shrugged. "Come on. Who's 'he', why is he after you – your baby! You had the baby!"

"Yes, I had the baby; Ethan. Ethan came after us, I gave Charlie the baby, he ran … other way … I don't know why, but Ethan wants to hurt my baby, please don't let him hurt my baby," she whispered. Boone took her arm and led her cautiously back to the caves, one ear open for sounds.

~*~

The baby had not taken to this running lark all that well. _He'll never be a star sprinter_, Charlie thought as he kept a tight hold on the bundle, running as fast as he could, the noises behind him _getting nearer? Fuck._ He didn't dare look back. _Little man won't be anything if I don't keep ahead._

He heard a shout, looked up in time to see Locke throw the knife. He shot a hand out, caught it by the handle, and turned, his body shielding the baby, the point of the knife outwards, squeezing his eyes shut as Ethan knocked into them, barrelling them over, him, Charlie and the baby.

Charlie scrambled up fast, running to Locke. "Where did you come from?"

"Claire told us. Boone's taking her back to the caves." Locke glanced at Ethan, prone on the ground and emitting a low groaning sound mixed with a soft slight gargle. "You have good aim."

"Thanks. How did you know you wouldn't hit the baby? When you threw me the knife, I mean." He relaxed his grip on him for a moment, an insistent wail made worse as Charlie tried to hold him tighter than he wanted to be held.

Locke looked at the baby. "I didn't."

"Oh." Charlie glanced over at Ethan, who was looking fixedly up at the bundle in his arms. His skin trying to crawl over itself and off his body, Charlie turned away. "I think an unleasurely hurry would be in order," he muttered, and set off. Locke followed after a few moments.

~*~

"Charlie!" Claire tried to stand, but Jack stopped her, and Charlie quickly sat by her, handing her back the baby.

"He's okay. He doesn't like being held quite so tightly, or run with, but, he's alright."

"And Ethan?"

"He's. He won't be bothering us for a while." Charlie glanced at Jack, who muttered something about getting more firewood and left them alone. "I won't let anyone harm you, or the baby, Claire."

"Thank you. It – means a lot to me, that I've got you."

"And you have. Got me."

"I know." The baby's cries became fainter, and he seemed to settle. Claire gazed at him.

Charlie looked to the left of the fire until patterns danced white on his eyelids. "I could sing him to sleep, if you like."

"I think he'd like that." _Too early for Catch a Falling Star? Never too early for that one._ "I'd like that."

"Yeah?" He glanced at her, found her eyes turned to him, and smiled.

"Charlie, when we – I mean, we haven't, and, it'll be a while before we do, but I want – Charlie, when we…" She blushed. He got the message.

"Oh. Right. Yeah?" Found the configuration of sticks at the base of the fire scintillating until she spoke again.

"I don't want to say, _Be gentle with me_ or anything, but … will you? I mean, I'd like it – I like it to be – I mean – you will, right?"

"Of course." He put his arm around her, kissed her hair. Smiled into it.

They were silent for a time. The fire crackled. The baby's eyes slid closed.

"Have you thought what to call him yet? The baby?"

"Not yet." She leaned against him. Cradled the baby, cradled in Charlie's arms, until the fire went out.


End file.
